steve, thank you very much indeed for coming in. listening to muallem's speech, what sort of insight does it give us into the way the syrian regime is thinking right now? >> well, the foreign minister repeated almost verbatim what they called this uprising from the very beginning. they depicted it as driven by foreign elements, as a conspiracy against the syrian people, against the syrian nation, and it's a way of denying any legitimacy to the claims of the opposition and rejecting the possibility that the regime itself might have some culpability for the violence that has racked syria for the past 18 months, if not longer. so they've developed this as a way to fend off any responsibility and to shift the blame onto others. unfortunately they found support for their narrative including russia and iran and that has not got them to see things in a way more willing to talk about the possibility for change. >> also, very strong words about the u.s., which, of course, has only been providing nonlethal support to the opposition. is that y